The present invention relates in general to a farm implement hitches; and, in particular, to hydraulically controlled implement hitch for movement of the implement transverse of the direction of travel.
As a result of the increased world population and unfavorable crop productions in many countries, the burden of increased food production was placed on the U.S. farmer. In order to meet the increased need for food products, the farming industry is seeking methods of increasing the yield per acre. Further, the amount of land being tilled each year is increasing as evidenced by the gradual changeover of pasture land into tillable crop land. Much of the previously converted tillable land includes the rolling, hilly land that until recently was undesirable to be used for crop purposes. Working on rolling, hilly terrain creates many problems that are not associated with level land tillage. Until recently, because the majority of crop production was on semi-level land, farming equipment was designed for use primarily on level land. Therefore, the use of existing farming equipment on hilly, rolling terrain is currently producing problems.
A serious problem involves the downhill shifting of the implement when working transverse of the incline. Ideally, tilling the soil transverse of the incline is preferred since it does not further add to the water management problem by creating downward running furrows. The tractor, being easably controllable, maintains the proper straight alignment on inclines; however, the implement tends to shift downhill behind the tractor as it moves transversely across the incline.
This is particularly troublesome when cultivating where running off the row by as little as one half of an inch will cause the cultivator to plow up the plants and/or severely damage the root structure. Further, if the downhill shifting occurs during planting, and guide furrows are used, intentional running off becomes necessary during later tillage in order to maintain proper alignment with the rows. Therefore, downhill shifting is a serious problem.
Most farmers are switching to the tool bar implement combination. Therefore, the obvious solution to the problem would be realigning the individual implements to offset the shifting. In order to realign the implements, they must each be individually loosened from the tool bar, realigned and then retightened onto the tool bar. This procedure, while being satisfactory by alleviating the problem of misalignment because of downhill shifting, is very time consuming since tillage on hilly terrain is normally accomplished by a series of successive rows transverse the direction of incline and tilled in opposite directions. This procedure would require the operator, upon reaching the end of a row where he would normally turn around to proceed in the opposite direction for the next row, to again loosen the implement from the tool bar and realign them to offset the downhill shift that will occur on the opposite side of the implement. Furthermore, since the downhill shifting of the implement would constantly be changing with respect to the incline of the ground, the operator may have to stop to realign the implement more than once per each single row. This naturally would add more time to the tilling process.
The manual realignment of the implement becomes even more unrealistic when considered in light of the fact that the increased size of farming equipment, it is now possible to perform several operations to the land at the same time, including conditioning, planting, and fertilizing in one operation. If several operations were being carried out at the same time on hilly terrain where downhill shifting is a problem, each individual implement would have to be realigned, which could feasibly take more time than the actual tilling of the land.
Therefore, there is a definite need for a device which permits quick, accurate, and each realignment of an implement or a series of implements when tilling on rolling terrains.